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Editorial: It's people's choice to drink big, sugary sodas

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg looks at a 64 oz. cup, as Lucky's Cafe owner Greg Anagnostopoulos, left, stands behind him, during a news conference at the cafe in New York, Tuesday. New Yorkers are still free to gulp from huge sugary drinks after a state Supreme Court justice struck down the city's pioneering ban on super-sized sodas just hours before it was supposed to take effect.
(Photo by Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

A New York state Supreme Court hustice has wisely struck down a New York City ban on supersized sodas imposed by health-minded Mayor Michael Bloomberg, saying that the 16-ounce limit arbitrarily applied only to some sugary beverages and some places that sell them.

“The loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of this rule,” the judge ruled, adding that the selective prohibition against some sugary drinks was wrongheaded and unfair.

Unfair, most definitely, but wrongheaded only in its notion that government can arbitrarily tell its citizens how to behave because it knows what’s best for them.

When this proposal was first introduced we applauded the concern that the mayor was showing toward the citizens of his city, but said that a government rule was the wrong way to go about it.

Education and example would have been a far better path to go down to change the behavior of 14 million New Yorkers. For example what if the mayor decreed that sugary drinks would no longer be available at city sponsored functions or events? And what if he took the money he knew would go into a legal defense of his ill-conceived citywide order and put it into education programs explaining the demonstrated health dangers of obesity and diabetes that are linked to high calorie drinks?

We suggested that there was ample evidence of what happens when people are prohibited from behaviors they feel they can decide for themselves.

They decide for themselves.

So why not help them decide – not through law, but through education.

Blomberg himself seemed to be getting the lesson when he said following the ruling that “If you know what you’re doing is harmful to people’s health, common sense says if you care, you might want to stop doing that,” he said.

He is right of course. So let’s stick to common sense and lose the law.